Michelle in a Nutshell

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!

I just had a wonderful day and evening spent with loved ones, lots of laughs and delicious food. Oh, and some awesome gift-giving went down as well...score!

Seeing as I'm headed out of the country tomorrow for 10 days and won't be able to post on here since I won't even have an internet connection most of the time, I thought I'd make one last mini post about today's nails and makeup :)

(photos taken with my iPhone)

I know, I know, this post (as well as the gift ideas) is pretty last minute, but I still wanted to share a few of my gift ideas which are mostly DIY (do it yourself). 

I think DIY gifts are always thoughtful and interesting - and I love gifting them as well as receiving them. So here's what I chose to gift a few of my best girlfriends.

Today I finished decorating our apartment for Christmas and thought I'd snap some photos. 

I really love decorating for the holidays and I sometimes peruse the pages of blogs and Pinterest looking for decorating inspiration.

So I thought I'd share my decorations if any of you are looking for some last minute ideas :)

Get ready for photo overload...

I'm back with another holiday nail tutorial! Woo woo!

Alright, I'll stop tooting my own horn. But hey, don't we all love nail polish and nail art?

Ya...I thought so :)

So, here's something I came up with last Sunday whilst hanging out at home on a cold wintery day. I was of course inspired by Christmas but I didn't want to use the traditional red and green colors. So I went for a simple "wintery" shade with this light blue.

Hope you like it!

I've noticed lately that I've been wearing a few lipstick and lipgloss combo's lately and thought I'd share them for anyone looking for some lip inspiration. 

I love reading blog posts about lip products because personally, I find the lip products area at any makeup counter to be quite daunting. I like to know what I'm looking for in advance, swatch it at the store to make sure it's right, and then buy it. Quick process. Since there are so many shades available, I quickly feel overwhelmed and don't know which shade is right for me.

On December 5th, 2013 the first Inglot store in Switzerland opened in the Löwencenter in Lucerne!

A little while ago, my friend Hollee sent me a link to a blog post featuring "candy cane nails". I've seen this idea on a few blogs and YouTube channels but I wanted to tone down the candy cane pattern to one nail instead of having it on all 10. Hollee also asked me how one should go about making this design, since the aforementioned blog post didn't include any instructions.

I've been loving quite a few MAC Cosmetics eyeshadows lately so I thought I'd share them for anyone interested! I really like reading blog posts about random eyeshadows because I find it's much easier to decide on which ones you might like rather than going to the MAC counter and being overwhelmed with the choices. 

So here are my picks at the moment!

Anyone else out there having as much fun with their Ciaté Mini Mani Month advent calendar as I am?!

I discovered this Christmas tag on Fee's blog Makeup Savvy and thought I'd join in on the fun since I also love the Christmas season! Georgina from Makeup Pixi3 came up with this tag so click on both these links to check out Fee's and Georgina's answers :)

Photo credit: Pinterest

Happy December!

Yay, December is finally here. Now the joy of the holidays and Christmas can finally set in and no one has to feel guilty that they're excited for Christmas at the beginning of November (me!).

And since it's December 1st, today is the day to....

Before jumping into December, I thought I'd share a few photos from our summer vacation in Turkey! 

Yay for CHRISTMAS!

I'm so excited for the holidays and Christmas vacation and going to Serbia & Bosnia and for gifts! Receiving and giving, of course...

Seeing as I love reading other bloggers' wishlists and gift ideas I thought I'd share my personal wishlist this year.

Something kind of funny is that I already (sorta) own three of the items on my wishlist...oops....

Anyways, here we go!

Hi guys!

Today I wanted to show you and introduce you to my sister Daisy's handmade jewelry collection called Calysto. She makes beautiful, unique and creative pieces all by herself!

While I lay at home sick with the flu, I'm reminiscing about a trip to Venice, Italy my boyfriend and I took over a long weekend, Nov. 1st - 3rd. It felt way too short spending only 2 nights there but it was so lovely being able to get away for the weekend and experience a new city.

We arrived on Friday at about 4pm after driving for about 8 hours. The road trip was supposed to take us about 6 hours but we ran into a huge traffic jam in Italy which made us arrive 2 hours later than planned. We parked our car in a humungous parking garage and were told to take the water taxi into the city center. They don't allow cars to drive into the city - which is so cool.

I'm really into trying out various foundations at the moment. I've had some crazy breakouts in my chin area (you damn hormones!) and this has moved me to find a better full-coverage foundation.

In my last foundation post, I tried out the YSL Youth Liberator foundation. I liked it, but I feel like the coverage wasn't as high as I expected it to be.

Drumroll please.... it's MAC HOLIDAY HAUL time! Woo woo!

Okay, my excitement may be a teensy bit over-the-top but come on, the collections are just so beautiful.

Here's what I picked up at the MAC counter in Lucerne:

I chose this brush kit because I know that I'll use at least 4 of the 5 brushes. The 217 blending brush is obviously a must and the 239 eye shader brush is very useful. I own both of these in the full-size version and use them very often. They'll be perfect for travelling since they're in the "mini" size. The 212 flat definer brush is perfect for applying dark eyeshadow as liner on the bottom lash line and the 168 angled contour brush is great for contouring with bronzer or for applying blush. The only brush I'm iffy about is the 193 angled foundation brush. I've never been a fan of these flat foundation brushes since my foundation always seems streaky after using this type of brush. I'd much rather apply my foundation with my fingers or with a buffing brush. But we shall see :)

Here's a swatch of the rest of the products I purchased.

From the Divine Night Holiday Colour Collection:

Kohl Power Eye Pencil in Raven

Divine Night Lipstick in Private Party

Divine Night Cremesheen Glass in Private Party

And lastly, I also purchased the Pro Longwear Paint Pot in Frozen Violet which is part of the Stroke of Midnight Eye Bag in Violet but it's also part of the permanent paint pot line so I bought it without the kit. Frozen Violet is a frosted purple silver cream eyeshadow and it's so pretty in real life (not coming across in this crappy lighting). I've used this eyeshadow as a base so far, but I still need to use it alone, I'm curious to see how that comes out.

The eye pencil in Raven is quite a dry pencil but still applies nicely. It's described as an "intense black with red pearl" but it's a really interesting shade because in certain lighting it can come across quite bronzey and even burgundy-like. 

My absolute favorites from this purchase are definitely the lipstick and cremesheen glass in Private Party. The description of the lipstick is pretty spot-on: dirty plum mauve. I love it. The cremesheen glass is a plum mauve with pearl so these two are perfection when paired together.

For every day use in the fall/winter time, I like to apply some of the lipstick onto my ring finger and then I pat it onto my lips creating a stain-like berry lip. I then apply the cremesheen glass over that.

So gorgeous, trust me.

I'll definitely do a makeup look soon using all the products to show you how they look.

I'm excited. Are you excited?

*This is not a sponsored post.*

Hi guys! I thought I'd share my "Face Of The Day" today since I'm testing out some new products. 

Welcome to my first instalment of the little series "Venice Haul" following our weekend in Venice from Nov. 1 - Nov. 3. Coming up soon: makeup haul and travel diary in photos :)

We stayed in a hotel in the area called San Marco. This is the city center and where you can find the Piazza San Marco where the famous Basilica di San Marco is situated. I'll show you photos in my travel diary post.

Anyways, on Saturday afternoon/evening, after our lovely and expensive ride in a gondola, we decided to cross the Ponte di Rialto (the oldest bridge in Venice) from San Marco to the area San Polo.

Here, we found a cute market! That's always a great thing to find :)

We came across this stand with a ton of different pastas - Italian style of course! It was so colorful and pretty, I absolutely had to photograph it.

After walking up the whole street of the market, we decided to turn back towards the bridge. When we passed by the pasta stand for the second time, we decided to buy some pasta and sauces for ourselves, my boyfriend's sister's family and for my parents. This type of gift is a great way of bringing home something traditional from the city and it's practical since they can cook and eat it!

This is what we bought for ourselves:

Farfalle Multicolore pasta // €3.50

Spaghettata alla Puttanesca sauce mixture // €3.50

Pomodori Secchi // €1.50

Holy moly, these 3 items cost a total of €8.50! That's nothing for us, since we're so used to high prices in Switzerland.

The colors of this pasta are so cool! I almost don't want to cook it...just put it on a shelf in the kitchen to stare at :) This pasta is made directly in San Polo, Venice and this package is 250g. The instructions on all 3 products are in Italian as well as in English so that's a big plus!

At first I thought it was such a shame that they didn't have packaged pasta sauce at the stand, until I noticed these little dry mixture packages - you can make sauce with these! We decided to buy the Puttanesca sauce for ourselves, which contains tomato, garlic, black olives, capers, salt, and parsley. Yum! This packet is 80g and the instructions on the back are also in English! All you have to add is water, olive oil and a bit of butter. Sounds pretty fool-proof to me :)

I also chose to bring home a little package of Pomodori Secchi (sun-dried tomatoes). I'm sure these will be delicious since you can even smell them through the packaging. I think you can eat them directly out of the package but on the back there are instructions on how to preserve them: wash the tomatoes, boil them in water (add white vinegar and white wine) for 5 minutes, drain them, put them into jars adding olive oil, garlic, parsley and capers according to taste, and after 15 days you should have a delicious appetizer or side dish to be served with white, boiled meat, ham and seasoned cheeses. That sounds heavenly!

Hope you enjoyed our italian market haul and I'll be back with more Venice posts soon!

I love this image. I found it somewhere when surfing online and had to save it for myself. (If anyone knows where this image comes from, let me know so I can link the credit.)

Do. More. Of. What. Makes. You. Happy.

Simple as that, right? Well, I think many of us struggle more with this task than we can admit or even than we are conscious of. We get so caught up in our daily, busy lives full of errands to take care of, work, things that need to get done, checklists of annoying tasks, etc.

I mean, we work pretty hard to earn a living to be able to pay for whatever we want to pay for, so why not make better choices and really do the things that make us happy.

In some cases, it means saving more money to be able to do things like travel - which I want to do way more of. Like making use of a long weekend and hopping over to a neighboring country's beautiful city. Obviously, that can cost quite a lot, but doesn't it make more sense to save money for trips like these than to buy material things we don't even really need?

I guess it all depends on what makes you happy - like the image says. Life is too short not to do the things we love with the people we love.

Obviously, I'm quite a material girl myself. And yes, that lipstick or this handbag really does make me happy. I guess it's important to enjoy everything in moderation. And to of course be grateful for everyone and everything in your life.

Also, remember to enjoy all the little or big moments. Don't think about pesky tasks or events waiting for you in the future, because if those thoughts consume you, you'll totally miss what's happening at that moment. And that'd be a shame, wouldn't it?

This was kind of a rambly post but I had the need to share :)

And, something that's making me happy right now: my new blog template! Yay! Finally finished. I really love it and this motivates me even more to blog. I got the blog template on Etsy in the shop Mlekoshi Playground. In their main shop Mlekoshi they do business branding and web / e-commerce. Definitely check them out! Their customer service is out of this world!

My boyfriend and I spend this past weekend in Venice, Italy and it was amazing. I had last Friday off so we took advantage of the long weekend and headed to Venice for two nights. What an adorable city!

While we were there, I just had to step into an H&M and I of course picked up a couple of items. Nothing crazy, but I got lucky in finding a new pair of pants which fit me and are ubercomfy.

So I thought I'd share my OOTD with you!
(I unfortunately am not able to take a photo of my actual self since I'm at work and by the time I get home, it will be pitch black outside. Ugh...stupid office job...)

This is (almost) the exact outfit I'm wearing right now. Only the boots are a bit different since I couldn't find mine online (I bought them in some random shop in Amsterdam 2 years ago.) I basically just googled camel ankle boots - and these are pretty cute and affordable!

Printed Scarf in camel // H&M

Cotton Blouse in red // H&M

Slim-fit Pants in khaki green // H&M

Camel Ankle Boot // Reflection

Silver and White Horn Watch // Michael Kors

Jet Set Logo Travel Tote // Michael Kors

This is such a cute, comfy and very fall-inspired outfit. The pants I bought in Venice and they are sooooo comfy! They're very stretchy and they don't lose their shape after one day's wear so that's a plus right there. And I really love the button detailing at the bottom of each leg.

And, let me just say, I'm obsessed with this scarf. It doesn't really match everything so you have to plan out which outfit to wear it with, but when you do match it well, it's fabulous. So comfy and warm, you feel all cuddled up when wearing it!

And the red blouse - well - who doesn't love a lady in red? 

** Keep an eye out for my Venice MAKEUP haul - coming soon! **

*None of the links above are affiliate links. All opinions are my own.*

A couple of weeks ago I happened to stumble upon a Clinique counter, once again. Oopsy.

Well, I was in the market for a new mascara since I wasn't really happy with my current Maybelline The Rocket mascara which I was just finishing up. I once had tried out the Clinique High Impact Extreme Volume Mascara and really liked it so I wanted to pick up a new one.

And what'd-ya know, the mascara came in a cute little gift set, equipped with a cute sample of the Take The Day Off Makeup Remover For Lids, Lashes & Lips and a (full-size?) Cream Shaper For Eyes in the shade Black Diamond, which is a matte black pencil with some subtle silver shimmer/sparkle in it. All of this for the price of the mascara alone! (By the way, here in Switzerland the cost of the mascara is quite a bit more than $19.50 like in the USA...ugh!)

Chubby Stick For Eyes in 04 Ample Amber

For my lacquered tips at the moment I've chosen this combination:
Essie's Chinchilly and Butter London's No More Waity, Katie.

Chinchilly is a granite gray shade without any shimmer or sparkle. Very elegant, very autumn and I think it looks quite nice with my light skin tone. I often wear this shade alone but sometimes I like to spruce it up a bit.

No More Waity, Katie is a soft lilac glitter polish. You would think that this comes out as a dark gray polish with specks of lilac glitter but it's actually quite sheer. If you layer it over a dark purple, for example, it just makes the dark purple shade a bit milky. But layered over Chinchilly, it's perfection I tell you! I really love it. 

I think the lilac glitter matches the gray shade so well. It's actually quite a subtle look, so I decided to layer the lilac sparkle over every nail, instead of just doing one accent nail. 

And just like it says on the Butter London website: "One day my prince will come, and I will wrap him around my tiny, sparkling finger." ;-)